Planning and Management of Cross-Border Bank Acquisitions in Central and Eastern European Markets: A Case Study of UniCredit

Over the last two decades cross-border acquisition has increased substantially. Most specifically, in the banking sector, banks from Western European countries seemed to be inclined toward rapid acquisition in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. Naturally, from the surface level, the driving forces appear to links with the increasing globalization, market deregulation, and technological innovations. However, under the surface lies the most significant question: how do Western European Banks execute successful cross-border acquisition in CEE countries? The purpose of this study is to investigate how banks achieve successful cross-border acquisitions in CEE countries. Particularly, the study emphasizes the motives of acquisitions and the decisions related to the pre-acquisition planning phase and post-acquisition integration phase. The study was carried out using case study method. The case study includes acquisitions of seven banks by an Italian bank (UniCredit) in CEE. The data were collected through semi structured interviews with five managers from three Offices of UniCredit. Evidence collected from these case study highlights that CEE region was a key determinant to UniCredit's success and different motives pushed the company to carry out acquisitions in the region. The findings also suggested that the bank followed a detailed pre-acquisition plan before its acquisitions and that the integration processes were characterized by a high level of integration at a fast speed. _________________________________________________________________________